Barca scored a brilliant come back from behind victory against Sevilla away from Home .

Barcelona over turned the 2-1 deficit with 2 minutes of normal time left.

Cesc Fabregas against Sevilla

FC Barcelona over turned a 2-1 deficit in last five minutes to conquer a ten man Sevilla side. Cesc Fabregas scored twice and Villa scored a stoppage time winner to secure three points for Barca. This win put us at 11 points clear off Real madrid as of now but they have a chance to reduce it to eight tomorrow. Sevilla would feel really hard done by some refereeing decisions. First was the sending off of Medel, which I don't think he can complain much about after trying a small head-butt on Cesc Fabregas. It was nothing like Zidane headbutt but still you are not allowed to do those things. The second was a bit more controversial because that lead to the equaliser. In the build up to the second goal, there was a hand ball from Thiago which the referee couldn't spot as it was on his blind side. As I predicted in the Barca vs Sevilla Match previewIt was surprising to see Alexis once again in the official line-up chosen by Vilanova. The Chilean has not been any kind of form lately and he himself acknowledged that. He formed the attacking trio with Pedro and Messi. Tito went with a midfield featuring Cesc, Xavi and Busquets. In the defense we had Alves, Mascherano, Song and Alba. Pinto, Montoya, Bartra, Sergi Roberto, Thiago, Villa and Tello started on the bench.

Sep 28, 2012

Worried by the ever growing loist of injuries, Barca fans finally got some good news. Actually a set of good news. The biggest of all is the fact that Abidal has started his come back to the game and may even feature in late November. The other news were that Iniesta, Puyol and Pique would all could be fit for the first Clasico at the Camp Nou. But that's a week away from now, but tomorrow we will be facing our toughest test yet this season at Sevilla. Last season we won this away fixture 2-0, thanks to the goals from Xavi Hernandez(a brilliant free kick) and an extra-ordinary chip from Lionel Messi. Those two should feature tomorrow night, and we may need similar outstanding goals to see this through. Sevilla has been in some form from the start of the season. They are still unbeaten and has already sunk Real Madrid at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. So this has to be the real test. Add to this the fact that we hate to play Sevilla, a very physical and comptitive side and also add the fact that we may have to field a make shift central defense again - that's a tough task. But then normal reasoning usually does not work with this Golden Generation of footballers. Over the past few years, they have done extremely well at places they where expected to struggle and struggled at places where they were expecting easy victories. Last week's performance against Granada itself could be a prime example for that.

FC Barcelona continued their winning streak in the La Liga with a 2-0 victory against Granada at teh Camp Nou. We surely did came close to losing the winning streak tonight, but an 87th minute Xavi goal made sure that we are going home with three points. Vilanova gave David Villa his first official start of the season tonight. He made the attacking trio with Messi and Sanchez. The midfield saw Thiago partnering Cesc and Busquets. Vilanova doesn't look interested to start Bartra instead went with a defense which had Alves, Mascherano, Song and Adriano. The bench had Pinto, Bartra, Alba, Xavi, Sergi Roberto, Pedro and Tello. It was surprising to see Sergi Roberto in the squad and Jonathan Dos Santos out of it. That clearly says that he has no future under Vilanova at Barca.

Tito Vilanova's Barca got off to a winning start at Camp Nou with a come-back from behind victory against Spartak Moscow. When Tello scored early everyone thought it going to be a routine win, maybe a massacre. BUt it wasn't to be. Two defensive lapses saw us going 2-1 down. But when we have the World's Best Player, you don't have to worry much. Messi scored twice to give us a tough 3-2 victory. Tito should be happy with the victory but he surely have a huge task at hand with defense and now with Pique also picking up an injury. As expected Vilanova went with a predictable line-up. Valdes started on goal with a defense of Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Adriano in front of him. Busquets, Xavi and Fabregas formed the midfield trio. Pedro, Messi and Tello started upfront. Pinto, Villa, Sanchez, Thiago, Song, Bartra and Montoya started on the bench.

Sep 16, 2012

FC Barcelona kept on with their perfect start into the La Liga season with a brilliant 4-1 victory against getafe away from home. Adriano opened the scoring in first half and second half substitutes Messi and Villa made it a comfortable victory. Incidently the Getafe goal was an unfortunate own goal from another substitute Javier Mascherano. The line-up selected by Tito surprised many. Technically it has to be said that Jordi was in charge as Tito was serving his two match ban. Vilanova deicded to give Montoya his first start of the season. So he started at the right back of defense with Puyol and Pique partnering in the middle and Adriano on the left. The midfield saw Xavi and Busquetsa start along with Thiago, who was declared fit to play last week. No one expected him to get his start here. Tello and Pedro joined with Cesc Fabregas at the front line of attack. The substitute bench had Pinto, Mascherano, Alves, Villa, Song, Messi and Deulofeu.

Sep 14, 2012

Ok, playing after an International Break has been always tough for Barca. Playing at the Coliseum Alfonso Perez has been more difficult. Last season we tasted defeat there, even though there were some controversies about the disallowed goal. But this season Getafe could be even tougher. They gave Real Madrid a their first defeat of La Liga campaign couple of weeks back. So this was a very tough job, As if it wasn't tough enough, we are put in a situation where we will be missing Iniesta, Sanchez and Alba all due to injury. I believe now everyone understand the difficulty of the task at hand. We will be going to one of the toughest place(atleast for us) missing some cruical players and also with the rest of the squad bit tired after the midweek duty. But Messi and Co. wouldn't want to give up the perfect start to the season and most importantly the five point lead on defending Champions, Real Madrid. So get ready for a blood bath.

Sep 12, 2012

All those lies, all those damn lies, finally have been proven wrong. The allegations of drunk fans responsible for the loss of 96 lives on that fateful day in 1989, has been proven wrong. The release of documents related to the disaster has clarified and proven what the families of victims and the Red fans has been saying for all these 23 years. Now it's officially accepeted that the disaster was a result of collosal failure on the part of Police and other related authorities. But the real disaster or tragedy was the cover-up and the shifting of blame after the disaster. It took 23 years, yup 23 long years to know the truth or should I say for the officials to accept the truth. It was clear from today morning that those related to the authorities knew the truth from the very first day. It was no coincidence that 23 years later Sheffield Wednesday chose to apologise for the disaster. The better use of word would be "Forced to Apologise". For a person sitting miles away from England, the Hillsborough disaster was at first just yet another sad disaster day. That was until I started to read about the cover-up that followed. This is not only a failure of the Government organisation but also the Justice system who should have given these families peace of mind years earlier. Instead they failed them, not only that they rubbed more salt into those bereaved families.

Sep 3, 2012

It was all supposed to be really smooth. He was the one with the Barca DNA, so getting into this midfield was not at all a big task for Cesc Fabregas. The only factor to weigh in was how Iniesta and Xavi would be rotated to accomodate Cesc in. And he didn't start badly at all. Scored a number of goals and suddenly gave Barca a new dimension, which no one though existed. But when the crunch time came towards the end of the season, he simply stood as a misfit. Nobody knows what happened. From then on, in Barca's midfield he always looked like someone who is forced in the wrong place in a football field. the more he play, the more it gets worse. To make matters worse for him, the ones who cried for his signing has turned kind of against him and is demanding a subsqeuent change in attitude and performance. For the record, I have never been a huge fan of his signing. I did write about it earlier in two post, you can read it here Stop Fabregas Obsession and Do we really need Cesc Fabregas?. Everyone expected Cesc to take almost a year to integrate into the side. What puzzles everyone is the fact with each minute playing in that midfield he looks totally confused. So why this is happening. Let's look into the reasons affecting Cesc at Barca.

FC Barcelona went back to the top of La Liga with a really hard fought 1-0 victory against Valencia. A wonder strike by Adriano gave Barca the tough victory against a team which neutralized Barca's attack efefctive with little ease. Alex song made his first start in Barca career and showed that the money spend on him was not at all wasted. With this victory, FC Barcelona remains the only team which has won all their games in this season's Liga. Tito Vilanova was suspended for the match. Jordi Roura substituted for him on teh touch line. After his impressive debut at bernebeu, Alez Song was given his first start in a Barca line-up. Alves was declared fit following the mid-week absence and came straight into the line-up. The back four had Alves, Pique, Mascherano and Adriano. The midfield had Song, Xavi and Cesc, which worried everyone especially to see how Cesc cope with brilliant pressing by Valencia. The front line once again remained unchanged with Messi, Alexis and Pedro. The substitutes were Pinto, Alba, Batra, Iniesta, Tello and Villa.